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Astronomers have discovered a new object lying on the outer edge of our galaxy. He believes that this could be a hitherto unknown arm of the Milky Way. The discovery is nicknamed the Cattail.
The discovery of Cattail was captured by astronomers on the outer edge of the Milky Way. It is not yet mapped in its entirety, but it is known that it is a huge fiber full of gas and dust. It is located about three times further from the center of the galaxy than our globe. Scientists believe it is another arm of the Milky Way.
In recent years, scientists have conducted research in the Chinese province of Guizhou. According to information from the web Live Science for this they used a spherical radio telescope (FAST) with a five hundred meter aperture (FAST). It is the largest radio telescope in the world.
FAST has the advantage that the universe can see through the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Therefore, it is useful for observing cold gas containing hydrogen.
By combining FAST observations with data from a telescope in Germany and Australia, the researchers were able to map an object called Cattail, which has an area of 3,600 light-years.
It is located about 68,000 light-years from planet Earth. It is the most distant and largest gas fiber ever seen. A team of scientists has discovered that the weight of the Cattail contains relatively as much mass as 65,000 suns. Its actual range may in fact be even greater.
The existence of Cattail is a big puzzle for astronomers. Because it is three times further from the center of the galaxy than we are, it is incomprehensible how large it can be.
“We don’t know how such a huge fibrous gas structure could form in such a place,” he told Live Science Keping Qiu, an astronomer at Nanjing University.
The arms of the Milky Way contain stars, gas and dust. There are four shoulders together that we know about so far. The main arm is called Scutum – Centaurus, which should include Cattail, and the second arm is Perseus. Between them are two more, Norma and Sagittarius. On the shoulder of Sagittarius is the Earth, specifically on the branch of Orion Spur.
TN.cz
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